<p>Which high school guidance office has done the best job putting out a handbook for students and parents about the college application process. I am going to create a reference sheet of must read web pages and know I have seen some decent high school sites. Which ones are your favorites?</p>
<p>Oregon Episcopal School (Portland) has an informative website and college handbook (pdf).
<a href="http://www.oes.edu/us/college.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.oes.edu/us/college.htm</a></p>
<p>La Jolla Country Day (San Diego) has a good site - especially the student handbook and the resource links at the bottom. This site does a particularly good job with explaining the University of California requirements and application process. Also good info. for URMs here. <a href="http://www.ljcds.org/academics/upper_school/college_counseling/index2.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ljcds.org/academics/upper_school/college_counseling/index2.html</a></p>
<p>Here are some I've found: </p>
<p><a href="http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/bcchs/counseling/collapp.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/bcchs/counseling/collapp.html</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://ntap.k12.ca.us/whs/counsel.html%5B/url%5D">http://ntap.k12.ca.us/whs/counsel.html</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/Resources/Parents/SSHandbook/%5B/url%5D">http://www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/Resources/Parents/SSHandbook/</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.euhsd.k12.ca.us/forstudents/%5B/url%5D">http://www.euhsd.k12.ca.us/forstudents/</a> </p>
<p>Thanks for raising this interesting and very on-topic question.</p>
<p>Belmont High school in MA has good information about the college application process and a whole article on the type of things to bring to college.</p>
<p>Marite, I really liked the supply list at Belmont High - many things I never even thought of!</p>
<p>Thanks for the supply list!</p>
<p>SPS has a good parent questionnaire form and parent/student responsibilities checklist. I think these would be very helpful for those who are trying to make portfolios/resumes for GCs and for those who are basically going it alone.</p>
<p>Besides the good supply list, the Belmont High website has good tips on college planning.</p>
<p>It is interesting to me that according to their website, St. Paul's weights Honors and AP courses exactly the same! In our school at least, AP courses are harder and get more weight.</p>
<p>Good supply list but I'm sure my daughter would wonder what that heavy thing was if I packed her off with an iron. :)</p>
<p>Vorowne - Honors and AP classes are weighted the same at my children's high school too.</p>
<p>Check out St. Paul's school profile - one of the better ones I've seen.</p>
<p>Voronwe, I think they weight them a hair differently, but not enough to make much difference, other than making the parents happy. A couple of the Honors classes have traditionally ended in the students taking the appropriate AP test, so there really isn't much difference in practice.</p>
<p>Here's another: Torrey Pines High School in San Diego. They do an excellent job of getting kids into colleges. Their website information is great. I especially like the form they ask kids to fill out to give to their teachers/GC when they are asking them to write recommendations. They also have a nice section on internships. Very cool.
<a href="http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/tpcounseling/%5B/url%5D">http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/tpcounseling/</a></p>
<p>Wasn't Belmont the subject of an article about the impact of tough grading policies on acceptances at schools ranging from Harvard to Michigan? </p>
<p>On the OP's question, I think that some foreign high schools seem to spend a great amount of money to prepare their students. One such example is: </p>
<p>Cangel, thanks- that makes sense. In our school, the Honors kids probably NEVER take an AP exam.</p>
<p>Xiggi:</p>
<p>The article concerned Belmont Hill, a private school. Belmont High is a public school.</p>
<p>St. Paul mentions that prepping for college starts with them in the spring of 8th grade, with an introduction to college workshop for 8th graders. Good idea--at our school, it starts in spring of JUNIOR year--which is late, in my book.</p>
<p>St. Paul's honors and AP classes never overlap (i.e. the ap class has no honors equivalent). Both are moved up one on the 4.0 scale (an A is a 5) For our other GPA (out of 100) an Ap is 1.06 times and Honors is 1.05. </p>
<p>However, the best thing about our school is the class trip take every even grade starting w/ the 4th grade. 4th and 6th grade take bonding trips to various camps. 8th graders go to D.C. 10th grade goes to Universal Studios in Orlando. 12th grade (the trip I just got back from) goes to Disney World. Not everything has to be about academics, and it's great for class bonding.</p>
<p>Oh, and I don't think that there is a picture of me on the website.... I don't think</p>
<p>OK, this is just too funny. I thought I was the only one who checked out private school websites to see what resources they have for college counseling!</p>